You have a vision for what your event will look like in five or ten years. But if you want to make it a reality, there are a couple of challenges that could stop you from achieving that dream.

However, with insight gathered by your event technology, unexpected surprises can be minimised or avoided altogether. Find out how to identify and prevent two common pitfalls with these two strategies.

Pitfall #1: Overspending as your event grows

Staying on top of variable costs such as food and drinks or staffing is difficult. Overestimate how much you need, and you may waste resources that could have otherwise been used elsewhere. Underestimate, and you could face a backlash from unsatisfied attendees.

It’s a mistake countless event creators have made when growing their business. Thankfully, paying attention to your ticket sales in real time can help you manage your variable costs.

Make sure your ticketing and registration partner gives you 24/7 access to the latest attendance numbers. With this insight, you can make more informed decisions about things like staffing, food, seats, and even WiFi.

If you rely on paid advertising to promote your events, it’s best to track sales in real time to identify which promotions are driving attendance. Then, you can spend your marketing budget more wisely.

Pitfall #2: Attendees don’t come back

Even when your event attendance is strong, you can’t assume it will stay strong forever. Competition is always on the rise and attendees’ interests change frequently.

If you want to avoid unwanted surprises, analyse your event’s attendance and identify specific challenges like no-show rates and retention.

• No-show rates: if your last event had a few no-shows, it may not be an issue. However, if you analyse the no-show data over the last few years, you may begin to spot worrying trends that could influence future events.
• Retention: your first event will always have 100% new attendees. Your next event, however, should retain a healthy mix of new and returning attendees. Events with poor retention will have to spend considerably more to maintain their attendance than those that don’t.

Poor attendance and retention can happen for a number of reasons. Your promotional messages, for example, could be promising something your event doesn’t deliver. But you may never know exactly why event-goers aren’t motivated to attend until you ask them directly.

Post-event surveys should already be a part of your post-event evaluation process. The feedback they gather from attendees can help you learn what they liked (or didn’t like) about your event. This way,  when trends in your event attendance look unfavourable, you will know exactly why.

Apps like SurveyMonkey make it simple to collect attendee feedback.  Remember that time is of the essence, so send your survey to event-goers as they leave your event or shortly after. This will ensure you capture their feedback while it’s fresh in their minds.

If you use Eventbrite, sync your survey data with your event ticketing and registration technology to avoid exporting and importing data from one system to another. This will save you a few extra steps and let you send out your surveys faster, which will boost your response rates. It will also allow you to analyse the responses from different attendees side by side, and make patterns clearer.

Test these strategies out on your next event

Facing unwanted surprises is an inevitable part of event planning. However, with important insight into your event and its attendees, you can future-proof your event and stay ahead of the competition.

So make sure to choose an event ticketing and registration partner that offers 24/7 access to data, reports, and check-in tools that provide the insight needed to succeed today and tomorrow — like Eventbrite.

Get started on your next event today.